


Give Me A Reason

by natacup82



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M, Minor Character Death, Torture, Violence, season 1 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 07:18:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10917006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natacup82/pseuds/natacup82
Summary: "Alec, we need someone from the London Institute to meet us in Cambridge. We need a portal back to the Institute as soon as possible."Alec rolled his eyes, "You should have two warlocks with you by now, why the hell do you need the London institute?""Ragnor Fell is dead. A demon must have followed us after he took down his wards."He didn't mention Magnus, and Alec gripped his phone a little tighter. "Where's Magnus?" Alec said, voice sounding steadier than he felt.A season one AU where Magnus is taken hostage after Ragnor Fell is killed and Alec has to deal with how he feels about that.





	Give Me A Reason

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The working title of this fic was Alec goes Apeshit so please set your expectations accordingly  
> 2\. This is purely show fic, I have never read the books. I will never read the books ever in this life when Kindle Unlimited is giving me every trashy P&P AU fanfic (P.S. Someone write a regency AU for the love of god)  
> 3\. Thanks to abby for the beta and fixing all of my tense issues  
> 4\. Blame beatperfume and misspamela because this is 1000% their fault (s)  
> 5\. I'm browniet on tumblr

_**Prologue** _

“Honestly, Ragnor, was that necessary?” Magnus asked, rising from the chair and adjusting the sleeves of his jacket. It was so petty of him to use restraints while he put on his little show for Clary. 

“Of course,” Ragnor said. “She offered me anything. You were only up to a timeshare of your flat in Paris. Yawn.”

“Alright, enough with the warlock games,” Clary said, butting in and looking annoyed. Magnus was already regretting coming along on this excursion, and that attitude problem was not making it better. “Can you really wake my mother?”

“Not without the Book of the White,” Ragnor said, all of the humor gone from his voice. 

“What is the Book of the White?” Jace asked, that ever-present note of annoyance clear in his voice. 

Magnus jumped in and said. “It’s an ancient book of warlock magic containing spells more powerful than most warlocks could ever imagine.” He clapped Ragnor on the back as he finished raising an eyebrow at him in a dare to contradict the description. 

“I possessed the book when your mother came to me, and I used its contents to create the potion. Regrettably, I no longer have the book,” Ragnor said, and then, off the horrified look Clary gave him, he barreled on. “I asked Jocelyn to hide it that Valentine might never find it.”

“Ragnor, please, I have to get my mom back,” Clary said, frantic. “Is there any way to get the Book of the White?”

“Possibly. I may have something that can help us, won’t be a moment,” Ragnor said, jogging out of the room.

“What do we do if he can’t find the book?” Clary asked, looking at Jace. 

He stepped forward, still looking aggressive, and said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Magnus looked around at the room, all dark wood and outdated furniture, and said, “It’s a bit drab, isn’t it,” before he was cut off with a scream. In all the years they’d known each other, he’d never heard Ragnor make a sound like that. 

Magnus turned and looked up to see his oldest friend struggling with a shax demon and said, “Ragnor!”, rushing to him as he fell over the balcony from the second floor. 

Magnus tuned out whatever Jace and Clary were saying, trying to calm Ragnor and heal his wounds. They were deep, and the fall hadn’t helped, so he was expending more energy than he normally would on a simple healing. 

Ragnor died before Magnus could finish healing even one of the wounds, and Magnus was distracted by grief - the likes of which he hadn’t felt in years - and rage, so he didn’t hear the portal open, didn’t really listen to whatever Jace and Clary yelled before his hands were bound. Then he was hyper aware of everything before a hand reached out and pulled him into the portal and into darkness. 

*

Alec was in a meeting with Lydia, reviewing patrol schedules and configurations, when his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He ignored it. They could tell him how Clary screwed up this mission when they portaled back to the Institute. 

It stopped for a few seconds, then started up again. And again. Over and over, until Lydia gave him a look over her desk. "The sooner you answer it, the sooner they'll portal back to give a proper debrief."

Alec snorted and said, "Clary's involved. They're going to try asking for something outside of the mission parameters."

"Still."

"Fine," Alec said, hitting accept. "What?"

"Alec, we need someone from the London Institute to meet us in Cambridge. We need a portal back to the Institute as soon as possible."

Alec rolled his eyes, "You should have two warlocks with you by now, why the hell do you need the London institute?"

"Ragnor Fell is dead. A demon must have followed us after he took down his wards."

He didn't mention Magnus, and Alec gripped his phone a little tighter. "Where's Magnus?" Alec said, voice sounding steadier than he felt.

"He's gone," Jace said. "He was trying to heal Ragnor, and we don't know how it happened. A portal opened up, his hands were bound, and he was gone."

Alec heard a roaring in his ears. Lydia was saying something, and Jace was talking again, but he couldn't hear it. "Valentine?" Alec asked. He didn’t remember standing up, but he had, clenching his fist to stop himself from punching something. 

"We think so, we need to figure out how they knew we were here," Jace said. He sounded frustrated, but Alec didn't have time to deal with that. 

"We'll get the London Institute to portal you back, be prepared to debrief," Alec said before hanging up. 

He was at the door before Lydia tried to ask a question. "What the hell is going on?" 

"Valentine killed Ragnor Fell and took Magnus. Contact the London Institute, Jace needs a portal back. I need to go question Hodge," Alec said, halfway out of the door. 

Lydia frowns. "His information isn't fresh."

"I don't need it fresh. I need the names of every Circle member he remembers, and we need to lock down until I find out who's our traitor," Alec said, before he was out the door and on his way to the command center. 

*  
“AAAAHHHH!” 

Alec stood with his arms crossed and let Hodge scream it out. He thought about stopping him, but they hadn’t gotten anything useful yet, so he waited.

Hodge stopped screaming and lay there, twitching on the floor, sweating and sucking in great heaving breaths. 

“What the hell?” Jace said, coming into the training room and dropping down to a knee to help Hodge up. 

Alec glanced over at him briefly. “Oh good, you’re back. We can debrief after we finish up here,” he said, before focusing back on Hodge. 

Jace helped Hodge sit up and scoffed, “Finish up what? He doesn’t have any new information on the Circle, Alec.”

“Valentine sent that Forsaken after him for a reason. We need to dig deep to figure out why,” Alec said, walking over to where Hodge was propped up against a rack of weapons. “Hodge, you know I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important. We need to find this traitor.”

Hodge nodded, then grimaced and said, “I know. You know I’d do anything to help.”

Alec started to crouch down, and then stepped on something and paused. He moved his foot and bent down, finding a ring. It hadn't been on the floor when he'd followed Hodge in here an hour ago. 

“I know you would, and I know this hurts,” Alec said. He didn’t look at Jace but he could guess what Jace was feeling through their parabatai bond. “But I just need one more thing.”

“I’ll try, I don't know how much more I can give.”

Alec nodded and said, “Just one more thing.” He held up the ring and watched as Hodge’s eyes darted toward the door, and Jace’s hand came down hard on his shoulder. “Where did you get the ring? I don’t recognize the runes, but I’m guessing this is how you’ve been communicating with Valentine.”

Hodge squirmed, and Jace pressed down harder. “You don’t understand!”

“I understand that a Forsaken got into the Institute, that one ally is dead and another is _missing_.” Alec almost smiled. He was so angry, and now he had something to hit. “You’re going to start telling me what you’ve told him and what his next step is, or I’m going to start breaking your fingers.”

“Alec,” Jace said, a hint of warning in his voice. 

Alec rolled his eyes. “Or we can give you to the Silent Brothers, and they can do whatever they need to do to make you talk. You choose.”

“Listen, you have to believe me,” Hodge said, and then broke off with a scream as Alec leaned forward and broke one of his fingers. 

Alec stared at him and ignored whatever Jace was trying to say without saying. “Are you done lying, or do I have to keep breaking?”

“I’m done, I’m done,” Hodge said, trying to pull his hand back away from Alec.

“Good.”

*  
“What the hell was that back there?” Jace said from somewhere behind and to the left of Alec. 

Alec didn’t stop walking, didn’t look behind him to see the face he knew Jace was making. “I was getting results. And now we have a direct line to Valentine and a list of Circle members to hunt down, and Hodge is on the way to the City of Bones.”

Jace grabbed his arm, and Alec turned, _annoyed_ , to face him. “What?”

“You tortured Hodge to get information.”

Alec scoffed. “It was one finger and he’s a traitor. Or did you not hear him admit to planning to steal the Mortal Cup for Valentine?”

“Look.” Jace said, finally letting go of Alec’s arm, “I know you’re worried about Magnus -”

“Don’t,” Alec growled. He’d been doing his best not to blame Jace and Clary for the situation they were in, and he wasn’t in the mood to get pushed. 

“But.” Jace said, just barreling on, “we don’t do this.”

Alec laughed. It sounded harsh to his own ears. “We absolutely do this. If you needed Magnus to help Clary do something, _anything_ , you’d be the first person in the room to do whatever it takes to get that information.”

“That’s not -” 

Alec cut him off and said, “You’ve broken every rule you can since you’ve met her. I’m just trying to help my. To help my friend, who is our ally, and I’ve still managed to stay within the law.”

Jace sighed, scrubbed a hand through his hair and said, “I’m just trying to stop you from doing something you’ll regret.”

“I haven’t regretted anything I’ve done yet, and if we can bring down Valentine and get Magnus back, I’m not going to regret whatever I do next,” Alec said and walked away. He didn’t have time to argue with Jace about how to be nicer to traitors.

*  
Lydia’s door was open when he got to her office, so Alec didn’t bother knocking. 

She looked up when he paused in the doorway and beckoned him forward. 

“Hodge is being transported to the City of Bones.” Alec said, taking the seat in front of her desk. He’d rather stand, but he knew her well enough by now to know that would put her on edge. 

“Good. That was good work you did with him,” Lydia said, finishing up with whatever they were sending back to the Clave. 

“Thanks,” Alec said. “We can’t coddle traitors just because we thought we knew them. And now we have good intel on other Circle members.”

Lydia nodded. “Teams are already out hunting them down. I think you’d be good to lead the interrogations before we turn them over to the Silent Brothers.” She leaned forward and said, “The Clave is concerned that a traitor was in this Institute and managed to coordinate with Valentine.”

Alec scoffed. “The Clave put him here, and they obviously didn’t do a good enough job hunting down the rest of them.”

“Careful,” Lydia said with a look. “I don’t disagree, but they had to prioritize. The law is hard, but it’s the law. And they thought Valentine was dead.”

“And they were wrong, and now we’re dealing with fallout,” Alec said. “That’s not the law, that’s politics. People have died because they put politics before the law.”

Lydia frowned and made a move like she was going to reach over the desk to touch him. Alec leaned back in his chair, even though he was already out of reach. He knew he’d have to get used to Lydia wanting to touch him or comfort him when they were married, but he wasn’t really ready for that yet. 

“I should go -” Alec started. 

“We should postpone -” Lydia said. 

“Sorry, go ahead,” Alec said, gesturing at her to go first. 

“We should postpone the wedding. We have Shadowhunters all over the city looking for Circle members, and we need to find a warlock to deal with our wards,” Lydia said. “We can’t have guests coming in from Idris with this going on.”

Alec nodded, agreeing before she even finished the explanation. “That’ll give us more time to find Magnus,” Alec said. “And Valentine,” he added, as almost an afterthought. 

“The Clave won’t approve a rescue mission for a Downworlder,” Lydia said. “I know he’s important to you. I’m sorry.”

“That’s not. He’s not -” Alec cut himself off. “He’s our ally, and he wouldn’t have been taken if he wasn’t helping us.”

Lydia sighed. “I know. But the Clave doesn’t see this as a Shadowhunter problem. Magnus was grabbed by a warlock from the residence of another warlock.”

“While we were looking for information on how to wake up Valentine's wife,” Alec said, trying not to start yelling. “I can’t sit back and do nothing.” He stood up, wanting to punch something. “I can’t.”

Lydia looked at him, hard, for a few moments, and then sighed again. “You can’t file any missions as directly related to him. If you get to him as a side effect, no one in Idris will be able to challenge what’s filed.”

“I won’t,” Alec said, still on edge but already mentally composing a mission spec. 

“You need to be discreet,” Lydia said, raising an eyebrow. 

Alec scoffed. Just because Jace and Isabelle constantly went out loud and obnoxious didn’t mean he had to. “That’s not a problem for me.”

*  
Alec headed back to the command centre just in time for a call to come in from one of the groups of Shadowhunters they had out on patrol. 

“They’ve got eyes on one of the Circle members Hodge identified. Last location was a mundane bar, they think he’s settling in for something,” Raj said, reporting out the details as they came in. 

“Do they need backup?" Alec asked. He still really, really wanted to punch someone, and if punching one of these Circle members led to Magnus, he was happy to do it. As much as possible, for as long as possible. 

Raj shook his head, then paused and said, “Shit. Yes, they’ve just got eyes on another one. Looks like these guys are meeting up or something.”

Alec nodded and walked over to the weapons to get his bow. 

“I’ll come out with you,” Jace said, walking in behind him. 

Alec rolled his eyes and grabbed his bow, “You don’t have to. I can handle this.”

“I know you can handle it, but I’m still going to have your back.”

Alec crossed his arms and said, “Even if I’m doing something you think I’ll regret?”

“Especially then,” Jace said, slapping his arm. “Come on, before they notice they have a tail and do something stupid.”

Alec followed him out and down the street. It wasn't far from the Institute, another sign of just how arrogant Valentine must be. It was only a few minutes before they were in front of a mundane bar, where two men in suits were talking and pointing at some enormous mundane guy at the end of the bar. 

“How do you want to do this?” Jace asked, pulling his seraph blade. 

“We’re supposed to be discreet,” Alec said, resisting the urge to just put an arrow in both of them. “And there are mundanes in the bar.”

They waited. And waited, as the bar mostly cleared out. The Circle members didn’t leave; they sat and watched the big guy, who didn’t look like he could leave on his own. It was nearing one AM when Alec made the call. 

“Okay, it’s mostly clear. Let’s go.”

They were made as soon as they got through the door, and both Circle members, Sternbow and Winterwine, had seraph blades out immediately. 

“You little Shadowhunters need to take a walk, and maybe you’ll be spared when Valentine is done cleansing the world,” the one near Jace said. Alec didn’t really care which was which. 

Alec laughed. “That’s not going to happen.” And then the one closest to him jabbed at Alec, and Alec grabbed his sword arm and threw his elbow up, breaking his nose. It was the best Alec had felt since Hodge started talking. After that, all hell broke loose.

Alec could feel Jace behind him fighting the mouthy one, and he knew when the glass front window of the bar broke, it at least wasn't Jace going through it. Alec got the seraph blade out of the guy’s hands and threw it over the back of the bar, somewhere they could retrieve it later, only for the Sternbow guy to pull out a mundane knife. 

“Are you serious?” Alec asked, almost laughing, dodging a swipe of the knife. 

Sternbow swung again, and Alec dodged again, the blade missing his throat by inches. Alec kicked Sternbow in the the knee, smiling when he screamed, and brought his elbow down on his face as he went down. 

He hadn't planned to start this fight in a bar but the guy - Alec already can’t remember his name - started it. The guy went down, hard, and Alec kicked away his knife before kicking him twice in the gut, just to make sure. 

“I thought you said we had to be discreet,” Jace said, from where he’d just finished bashing another Circle member’s face into the bar. 

Alec shrugged, looking around at the few people still in the bar at one AM on a Sunday. “We tried, at least? He started it. Let’s get them back to the Institute and find out if they want to talk now.”

*  
“How do you want to do this?” Jace asked as they walked back toward the Institute’s holding cells. 

Alec wanted to just go in and hit them until they started talking, but he already knew Jace and probably Lydia wouldn’t back him. “Is that one with the broken nose still screaming?” Alec asked, trying to decide which one to start on. 

Jace snorted. “They both have broken noses. The screaming one has a broken leg too, probably a couple of ribs.”

“No one’s tried any healing runes?” 

“Lydia said they can suffer like mundanes until they give us what we need.”

Alec smiled and said, “Good. Then we’ll start with the one without the broken leg. Maybe the other one will be more talkative if he can hear him screaming.” Alec let Jace open the door and go in first since this was the one he'd ended up fighting. 

The guy, Alec was sure now that this one was Winterwine, smirked as they closed and locked the door. He was sitting up, bound to a chair with blood all over his face and shirt. “You boys should just send me to the City of Bones. I have nothing to say to you.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be on your way to the City of Bones soon enough,” Jace said, leaning back against the wall. He looked over to Alec and said, “You want to go first?”

Alec shrugged, “I didn’t get to punch this one earlier, so if you don’t mind?” Jace shook his head, so Alec walked over and punched him in the gut twice.

He wheezed for a few moments and then ground out, “Is that all you got?”

Alec laughed. “No.” And then he punched him in the face twice, breaking his recently-set nose again. “You could start talking, or I could break something else.”

Winterwine spat out blood and said, “I have nothing to say. The Circle is doing the work Shadowhunters should be doing, you’re a disgrace.” 

“I’m so glad you said that,” Alec said, before grabbing his middle finger and ripping it back towards his elbow. He was sure Jace was wincing as Winterwine started screaming. 

Alec let him scream it out for a minute, and when he stopped and started to open his mouth to say something else, Alec stomped on his foot, smiling when he heard a crack. 

“Maybe you’re ready to start talking,” Jace said from the door.

Alec didn’t look over at him to see if he had that stupid pinched uncomfortable face on again. He kept looking down at Winterwine, at this miserable traitor that probably wouldn’t even care if something happened to a Downworlder who’d done nothing but help them. “He’s not,” Alec said, and then he broke the middle finger of his other hand. 

“Stop, stop! I’ll talk, stop!” he screamed as Alec kicked his already-broken foot, thinking about if it would hurt more to stomp on it again or break the other one.

“Good,” Jace said, pushing away from the door with something like relief crossing his face. 

Alec rolled his eyes. “Sure, great,” Alec said, thinking about how he was going to have to get the rest of his aggression out on the other one if this guy didn’t give them a real location for Valentine. 

*  
Winterwine talked for twenty minutes straight, barely pausing to take a breath. He kept cutting these looks in Alec’s direction like he was going to snap or something. Alec rolled his eyes; these cowards couldn't take even a little bit of pain. 

When he finished, he started mumbling, “And that’s all I know. I don’t have any more information.”

“Okay, we’ll see what we can confirm,” Alec said, pushing away from the wall. “If any of your intel is bad, I’m coming back in here, and I’m going to be much less nice than I was this time around.”

Alec nodded to Jace and started to head out. 

“Just a second,” Jace said before pulling out his stele. Jace activated a healing rune on Winterwine and then followed Alec out of the room. Alec would rather they'd just let him suffer, but Lydia had already made the call. 

“Do you think we should believe him?”Alec asked, already itching to question Sternbow and get some kind of confirmation. 

Winterwine had told them he was out scouting mundanes for Valentine's soon-to-be-created Shadowhunter army. Based on what he’d said, Valentine didn't know that Hodge had been blown and the Cup was already in Idris. 

Jace crossed his arms and leaned against the wall between the holding cells, really converted, unused offices. “It seems like it might be good information. But we have to at least try to confirm it with the other one.”

“Agreed,” Alec said, nodding. “Are you going to freak out some more if I turn up the pressure?” 

“I didn’t -”

Alec rolled his eyes and said, “Come on. I can feel you freaking out. It’s distracting.”

Jace didn’t flinch, which Alec appreciated. “Sorry. These guys were Shadowhunters once. It’s weird. And you’re not usually so gung-ho about this type of thing.”

Alec shrugged. Kicking these traitors at least made him feel like he was doing something. And as long as he was doing something, he didn’t have to think about whatever Valentine was doing to Magnus. 

“I never thought I’d be good at it,” Alec said. “And you know, I don’t feel useless.”

Jace laughed. “You’re very good at it.”

“Yeah, who knew?”

“You could have just helped with wedding prep work,” Jace said, smiling. 

Alec frowned. “The wedding is on hold while we try to track down Valentine.”

Jace's eyebrows went up, and Alec didn’t react. It wasn't a big deal that the wedding was on hold. 

“It’s not a big deal; we need to focus on Valentine, and I can’t do that with a bunch of Clave representatives wandering around.”

“Sure.”

“Seriously. It’s a distraction. What if we’re in the middle of doing whatever wedding thing while Magnus is getting -” Alec cut himself off. “Valentine could be planning or executing some plan while we’re all standing around eating cake. It’s a bad strategy.”

“Absolutely,” Jace said, grinning. 

“Anyway,” Alec said, ignoring whatever Jace was trying to imply. “Let’s get to work on Sternbow so we can start planning our next move.”

*

When they entered the second holding cell, Sternbow was on the floor, propped up against the wall with his broken leg out in front of him. He was sweating and bloody, but he still glared when Alec and Jace entered the room.

“I don’t -” He grimaced and started breathing through his mouth. “I have nothing to say to you children.”

Alec squatted down across from him and smiled. “That’s funny, because your friend next door had plenty to say.”

“He was very happy to talk,” Jace said. “If I activated my hearing rune, I’d probably hear him still begging to talk some more.”

Sternbow snorted. “He’s weak.” He tried to push himself further against the wall to sit up straighter, but stopped, going pale. 

“Looks like you’re having some trouble,” Alec said. He reached forward and pushed on his knee, just a little bit, for a few seconds. Firm pressure at the point Alec remembered stomping on. 

Sternbow screamed at the initial contact and then took several shallow breaths as Alec removed his finger.

“Whoops,” Alec said, rocking back on his heels before standing. “I think we should help him up, get him a chair before we start so we can do this right.” He looked over his shoulder at Jace. 

“I can not answer your questions from here,” Sternbow said, glaring at them. 

Jace snorted. “We insist,” he said, reaching down to grab one of Sternbow’s arms while Alec grabbed the other. 

They lifted him up just enough to let his broken leg drag across the floor to the single chair in the middle of the room. He screamed the whole way there, and Alec could feel Jace’s discomfort through the bond, but he didn’t object, and that was all that mattered. 

“Comfy?” Jace asked, taking up a spot leaning against the door. 

Sternbow was breathing heavily, a fresh sheen of sweat across his brow, when he said, “When Valentine takes this Institute, you will not be spared.”

“So Valentine plans to take the Institute?” Alec asked. “And here I thought you weren’t going to give us anything.”

“Go to hell.”

“You first,” Alec said, before he punched Sternbow in the stomach. He tried to aim low to avoid letting one of his broken ribs puncture a lung. The Clave wanted these two alive enough to get their runes stripped. 

He coughed and then spat blood. “Is that all you got? I’m serving the will of the Angel, pain means nothing.”

“Oh? Well, that’s good,” Alec said, elbowing Sternbow in the face. He didn’t give him a chance to recover before he reached down and broke two of his fingers. 

Sternbow clenched his jaw but managed to hold in the scream. If Alec hadn't been so disgusted with him, he’d've been impressed. “I’ll never,” Sternbow started, breath labored. “l will never betray my cause,” he finished, glaring at Alec. 

Alec looked at him, took in the hate in his eyes, the blood all over his face, and nodded. “I guess you won’t.” Then he slapped a hand down on Sternbow’s knee and let him scream until he passed out. 

“This one isn’t going to talk,” Alec said, walking back toward the door and Jace. “You can do the honors.”

Jace nodded, putting a healing rune on Sternbow’s chest. He looked at the leg and then shook his head. “I don’t trust this one to not try to escape if we do anything about the leg before he’s closer to the City of Bones.”

Alec nodded. “Yeah he’ll absolutely kill the guards. We don’t need to take that risk.” He pushed away from the door and said, “Let’s hope the other intel is good.”

 

*  
They made it into the command center as Raj was pulling up surveillance photos on the big screen. 

He nodded to Jace and Alec as they took their seats next to Lydia, and got started. “As you can see, there’s a ship in the river here. It’s not registered with any of the mundane authorities, and as far as we could find, they can’t see it.”

“It’s warded?” Lydia asked, leaning forward in her seat. 

“Heavily. We couldn’t get closer without revealing ourselves, but there were dozens of people on the deck.”

Alec frowned. “Did you see any runes? Are we dealing with Circle members or Forsaken?”

Raj clicked forward to another pic, a zoomed-in shot of a few of the men on the deck. “We’ve got a mix and -” He paused, probably for dramatic effect, before clicking forward again. “There were people in chains on the deck.”

Jace squinted at the picture before frowning. “I know that one,” he said, pointing at one girl in chains on the deck. “She’s a werewolf.”

Alec blanked out for a few minutes, trying not to think of what Valentine was doing to the Downworlders he had chained up on that deck. He scanned the screen, looking for a flash of color, but Magnus wasn’t chained on that deck. And the more he thought about it, the sillier it seemed to put a powerful warlock somewhere that wide open. 

“Luke said Valentine liked to experiment on Downworlders,” Alec said. “Looks like he’s still doing it.” Alec ignored the look Jace threw his way and tried to suppress whatever he was getting through the bond. It was fine. Magnus wasn’t on that deck, so there was still a chance he was okay. 

Lydia pushed back from the table and said, “We need to prepare an assault team. It’s possible Valentine is only out there because he’s been expecting delivery of the Cup - we need to act now.”

“We also need to fortify the Institute. If what those Circle members have said is true, Valentine’s backup plan is an assault on us,” Alec said. He didn’t trust any of the intel they’d gotten, but he wasn't naive enough to completely discount anything. 

Lydia paused and crossed her arms. “Do you think we’ll need reinforcements?”

“I think we should be ready. Have Idris have teams on standby to portal in just in case,” Alec said. If they didn’t get attacked and called in reinforcements, the Clave would question their leadership; if they didn’t do anything, the Clave would question their leadership. It was a no-win situation. 

Lydia nodded and said, “It’s a sound plan. I’ll send a fire message to the Clave and get authorization for the raid. Start planning.” And then she walked out, heading toward her office. 

“You sure you’re ready to do this?” Jace asked, looking at Alec. Raj took that as his cue to clear out, so they were alone with a map and the pictures up on the screen. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” 

“I didn’t see Magnus on that deck,” Jace said. He paused for a moment, then continued, “We might not find him on the ship. Valentine might have him somewhere else.”

“If we get Valentine, we stop all of this, and I can make him talk,” Alec said, voice hard to his own ears. He didn’t want to think about Magnus not being on that ship, about this dragging on longer. They'd get Valentine, they'd free Magnus, and his life would go back to normal. 

“Alec,” Jace started, before being cut off by Clary walking in, yelling. 

“Alec!” Clary yelled, coming in uninvited with her phone out. Izzy was at her heels, but not stopping her.

Alec closed his eyes. They didn’t have time for whatever she was on about now. “Whatever you want is going to have to wait. We’re planning a raid.” He looked back down at the map of the shoreline, starting to plot out approach points. 

“It’s about Magnus,” Clary said. 

Alec looked up sharply, focusing in on Clary for the first time since all of this started. “What about him?”

“Simon said the vampires just got an offer for a trade.”

*  
“What do you mean they got offered a trade?” Alec asked, voice flat. His mind had whited out at the possibility that all of this was some petty Downworlder infighting bullshit. No one could be stupid enough to drag the High Warlock of Brooklyn into that. 

Clary didn’t flinch at his tone. She squared her shoulders, and if Alec hadn't been on the verge of screaming, he’d've approved. “Simon wasn’t allowed in the meeting, but he overheard.”

Jace snorted. “Overheard or listened in?”

“It doesn’t matter what he did. Tell us.”

Clary nodded. “The warlock who took Magnus hasn’t delivered him to Valentine yet. He told the NY vampire clan that he’s willing to double-cross Valentine in exchange for one of their vampires.”

“Which one?” Jace asked, and Alec felt equal parts of confusion and dread through their bond. 

“Camille.”

“The same Camille that killed Simon?” Izzy asked. “I thought they would have killed her when they staged that coup.”

“She violated the accords, so they could have, _should have_ turned her over to the Clave, but if they’d killed her, then the new leader would need to answer for her crimes,” Jace said.

“So they’ve got a vampire who violated the accords as a prisoner for leverage in case the Clave wants her brought in.” Alec frowned, trying to recall everything they know about Camille Belcourt. “But that still doesn’t explain anything. Why would a warlock who has been smart enough to kill and kidnap other warlocks be stupid enough to double-cross Valentine just to get access to a vampire?”

“She’s pretty,” Clary offered, making a face. “And whatever she did to Simon made him want to go looking for her. What if she did the same thing to a warlock?”

Izzy shook her head. “Vampire blood doesn’t work like that on warlocks.”

“So what could she possibly have on him? He’s already made enemies out of all of the other warlocks in NY and London, what does she have on him that’s worth making Valentine his enemy too?”

“Valentine is already his enemy, this warlock is just too stupid to know it,” Izzy said, crossing her arms. 

Alec snorted. “None of this matters. We can figure out why after the trade.” He looked at Clary. “When is it happening?”

“I don’t know.” Clary said. She glanced at her phone, then back at Alec. “Simon said they were given a time period to make a decision, but he doesn’t know how much.”

Alec glared and said, voice cold, “What do you mean, they have time to make a decision? It’s not a choice.”

“Alec,” Izzy said rubbing his arm. “Camille is still one of theirs, Magnus isn’t. And if they don’t know what this warlock wants with her…”

Alec closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. It was fine. They were still all Downworlders, they couldn’t just be okay with giving one of their own to Valentine.

“Find out how much time they have and text me,” Alec said, starting to clean up before grabbing his gloves and heading toward the door. “And if we get approval for the raid while I’m out, call me.”

Izzy followed behind him and grabbed his arm as he made his way across the command center. “Where are you going?”

“Hotel DuMort. I can’t just stand around here and do nothing,” Alec said, turning to Izzy before stopping to grab a weapon and heading for the door. 

*  
“Alec, you can’t just barge in there,” Izzy said, walking fast to catch up. 

Alec sighed. “I’m not going to just barge in. I’m going to ask to speak to the head of the NY Vampire clan, and then they are going to tell me what’s going on.”

“And that’s your whole plan?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Alec said with a shrug. He didn’t slow down in his walk. 

Izzy didn’t say anything for a second, and Alec could almost feel the look she was giving him, but then she said, “Okay. So do we have a plan B?”

“Not really anything beyond hitting someone,” Alec said with another shrug. “You got any ideas?”

“I think we need to be ready to try to get in contact with some other local warlocks,” Izzy said. “Magnus helped them go into hiding, but if the vampires don’t cooperate, we’re going to need another option.”

Alec nodded. It was a sound plan to try to get to him before this warlock decided to just go ahead with delivery to Valentine. “You’re not going to tell me to focus on finding Valentine? I’m pretty sure that’s what the Clave would say if they knew where we were headed right now.”

Izzy laughed. “The Clave is wrong a lot, big brother. And I like Magnus. He wouldn’t be in this situation if he hadn’t helped us. Besides,” Izzy said, slipping an arm around Alec’s waist, “he’s good for you! He’s already gotten you to cancel that wedding.”

“It’s postponed,” Alec said, without a thought to considering when they’d have time to reschedule. 

Izzy shrugged. “Same thing. Plus we’re here.” She let go of him and stopped. “You ready for this?” 

“Let’s go.”

*  
The vampire guarding the door was hostile and made them wait ten minutes before they were escorted under guard to the upper lobby they’d been in before.

“Wait here,” the first vampire said, pointing at them before walking out of the room. Two others came in and planted themselves at the door, glaring at them. 

“Friendly,” Izzy said, turning on a heel to take a look around the room. “They’re all on edge.”

“They should be,” Alec said, eyes scanning the room. It was no less security than he expected after the last time they were here, but they still needed an exit strategy in case things went wrong. “Strange warlocks, the uptick in demon activity, and Valentine? I’d be more worried if they weren’t on edge.”

“Glad to hear you approve,” Raphael said, appearing behind them. “What do you want?”

Alec turned, facing Raphael, annoyed once again that vampires constantly pulled that stupid speed crap. “We heard you have information about a missing high warlock?” Alec said, trying to keep his voice calm. 

“Did you.” Raphael said, giving Alec, then Izzy a look. “And where might you have heard that?”

Alec started to say something, something he was sure wouldn’t make things less tense, when Izzy placed a hand on his arm and jumped in. 

“Listen, we’re not trying to interfere with vampire business.”

“It sure looks like you’re trying to interfere from where I’m standing.”

“Magnus is our friend,” Alec said, crossing his arms to keep from balling his hands into fists at his sides. “We just want to help.”

Raphael raised an eyebrow. “Since when do Shadowhunters have warlock friends?”

“Since now,” Alec said, voice hard. He knew their reputation with the Downworld hadn’t been great over the last few years, but he’d thought things had been better over the last few months.

Raphael smiled. “Good for you. We have this under control, no Shadowhunters required.”

Alec didn’t relax and resisted the urge to punch that stupid smile off Raphael’s face. 

“So you’ve already made arrangements for the trade?” Izzy asked, a note of hope in her voice that Alec refused to acknowledge. 

“I didn’t say that.” 

Alec clenched his teeth, flexed his hand to try to calm himself down. “You’re going to let him sell Magnus to Valentine then? Valentine tortures and experiments on Downworlders,” Alec said, trying to control his breathing. 

“I didn’t say that either,” Raphael said, looking Alec up and down. “Maybe you are really friends with Magnus.”

“We are,” Izzy said, jumping in while Alec glared at Raphael. “He was helping us when he was taken. We have to do what we can to make this right.”

“Hmm,” Raphael said. “You have a rune that can make you look like someone else, right?”

Alec narrowed his eyes. “Yes, why?” 

Raphael smiled. “Then maybe we can use your help. How do you feel about helping with a fake trade?” 

“You’d already decided to help Magnus when we got here, hadn’t you?” Alec asked, relaxing a little bit. It still wasn't over, but they were getting closer. 

Raphael shrugged. “I’ve known Magnus as long as I’ve been a vampire. He’s one of the few people left alive that remember my mother. I can’t free Camille; it’s too dangerous. But I’m not going to let anyone harm Magnus.”

“That’s something we have in common,” Alec said, relaxing a little bit more. “When do we start?”

“He’s promised to fire message instructions before sundown. We have a couple of hours, so we start now.”

*  
They had the basic shape of the plan by the time the fire message came through, and when Alec checked in with Jace, they still hadn’t gotten approval from the Clave to move on Valentine, so he has time. 

Izzy pawed through Camille’s clothes, looking for something she was willing to fight in. “Ugh, everything she owns is horrible!” 

Alec rolled his eyes. “Just pick something. You don’t have to look good, you just have to pass as Camille until we can take this guy out.”

“I know, but look at this!” Izzy said, holding up a dress. There was nothing about it that stood out to Alec. It was a dress, it was bright red, and it was probably short and tight.

Alec shrugged. “It looks like a dress to me. You’ve got ten minutes, and then we need to be ready.”

“You need to be ready now,” Raphael said, speed-walking into the room. “Never trust someone trying to blackmail you to show up when they say.”

“Have you tried just walking into rooms at normal speed?” Alec said, annoyed. 

Raphael shrugged. “I could, but I won’t.” He gestured to the vampire that had come in with him. “This is Michael. You’re going to take his place, but you shouldn’t need to dress the part.” 

“Good,” Alec said, thankful he didn’t need to borrow a suit from vampires. Then he paused, looking back at Izzy finally coming out from behind a screen in one of Camille’s dresses. “Wait, why?”

“He got twitchy about me bringing one of my lieutenants for the trade, so I told him I’d bring a baby,” Raphael said. He paused for a moment. “You’ve met Simon. Baby vampires are unpredictable and haven’t learned the consequences of not following orders.”

Alec nodded. “So that’s me not wearing a suit and getting Magnus’s hands free before we go back through the portal.” 

“Exactly,” Raphael said. 

Alec nodded again and looked to Izzy. “You ready?” he asked, pulling out his stele. 

“As I’ll ever be,” Izzy said, before grabbing the reference picture of Camille that she'd been given and activating the rune. She changed in seconds, then did a spin for the group. “How do I look?”

“Horrifying,” Raphael said with a sneer. “Remember, we’re going to gag you, because Camille is usually as unpleasant as possible at all times.”

Izzy laughed. “I remember.” Then she looked at Alec. “Your turn, big brother.” 

Alec flashed her a quick smile that didn’t feel quite right and looked at Michael before activating his own rune. “Are we good?” Alec asked. 

“Good enough,” Raphael said, looking Alec up and down. He looked like he was about to say something else when another vampire speed-walked into the room and said something to him, too low for Alec or Izzy to hear without activating another rune. 

“Looks like it’s showtime,” Raphael said. He tossed a gag at Izzy and looked at Alec. “Remember she’s a prisoner.” 

Alec snorted. “We got it,” he said, helping Izzy tie on the gag and using her whip as fake cuffs. “We’re ready, let’s do this.”

*  
The portal was already open and waiting when they reentered the main lobby, with a Forsaken standing at the side, waiting. If Alec needed any more confirmation that Valentine was involved, that would be it. 

He couldn’t seem to talk, only gesture at Raphael and point at the portal. Raphael nodded, and they followed him in. 

Alec blinked at the change in location and weather. It was stifling hot, but the room was dark, filled with uncovered windows, so Alec knew they were at least still on the East Coast. 

“Good, good, you’re here,” a voice said from somewhere ahead of them in the darkness. “I wasn’t sure if you’d show up, but I guess the rumors were true.”

“And what rumors are those?” Raphael said, sounding relaxed. Like this didn’t feel like a trap. Alec didn’t need to activate a rune to know the Forsaken that brought them here wasn’t the only security on tap; he could hear something else skittering around in the dark. 

The warlock laughed. “That you were one of Magnus Bane’s favorites. I’m glad at least one of you was alive still.”

“I’m sure you are,” Raphael said, adjusting his cufflinks. He looked bored, like they'd discussed, and sounded annoyed. “Can we get on with this? I have other things to do today.”

The warlock laughed, waved a hand, and there was Magnus, magically bound to a chair in front of them. Alec couldn’t breathe for a moment, and he was suddenly glad that he was wearing someone else’s face. 

“- can’t believe you’re dumb enough to fall for her shit,” Magnus said, voice cutting in seemingly in the middle of a rant. He looked up. “Raphael,” he said with a nod. “Always a pleasure.”

“Usually the circumstances are better,” Raphael said, barely inclining his head at Isabelle in her Camille glamour. 

Magnus looked back at the warlock and said, “Edge, let’s get on with this. I want out of this chair, and you need to go get happily double-crossed by a snake.”

Edge - the warlock had a name now - smiled at Magnus and looked back at Raphael. “Too right.” He gestured at Isabelle. “If you’d just send my dear Camille over to me, I can release Magnus.”

Alec waited for Raphael’s signal, then pushed Isabelle forward a little. Not so far that she was out of reach, but close enough that Edge could clearly see the gag and get a little mad. Angry people made mistakes, and they were going to need that to pull this off.

“I’m not letting this one go until you release Magnus,” Raphael said, grabbing Isabelle’s arm. She glared at him, and Alec had to resist smiling. “I don’t care what you and Camille get up to, as long as she stays out of New York, but you can’t possibly think I’m dumb enough to hand her over first.”

Edge rolled his eyes. “So little trust.”

“Imagine not trusting a warlock that kidnaps and kills his own and works for Valentine,” Magnus said from his side. “You’re just going to have to get used to the way the Downworld sees you now.”

“Ragnor was an accident!” Edge said, voice going a little hysterical. “That shax demon was supposed to cause a distraction, not harm anyone.” 

Magnus laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound, it had a bitter hard edge. “And you should know that you can’t really control demons. You can contain them and trade. Nothing more.”

“Anyway,” Raphael said cutting in. “Cut him loose. Magnus will give his word not to retaliate while we’re completing the trade, and I’ll give you Camille.”

Edge looked at Magnus and raised an eyebrow. “I promise not to retaliate during the trade. Release me,” Magnus said, flashing yellow cat’s eyes. 

Edge huffed and then waved a hand, and Magnus’s bonds dropped. Magnus stood up, quickly rubbing his wrists, and walked over to Raphael as Raphael pushed Izzy toward Edge. 

Alec made a face as Edge caressed Izzy’s face and started whispering what Alec was sure was some sort dopey lovesick nonsense in her ear. “Are we done?” Alec asked Raphael, throwing a quick look at Magnus. He looked okay, angry, but okay, even if he was ignoring Alec and his borrowed vampire face. 

Raphael glared at him and said, “I think we are.” He looked at Edge, made a face, and said, “Bauto! Is this trade done?”

“Yes, yes,” Edge said, waving a hand and opening a portal. “Consider the trade complete.” He’d just gotten the gag out of Izzy’s mouth. “Good,” she said, and then her glamour dropped. “Now we can really have some fun.”

*  
Izzy unfurled her whip as Edge jerked away from her. “What the hell is this?” Edge yelled, starting to raise his hands. 

Magnus threw him across the room with a blast of orange magic before he could strike, and Alec smiled, dropping his own glamour. “That is what happens when you turn on your own,” Magnus said, advancing on Edge with his hands out, magic swirling.

“I think things are about to get interesting,” Alec said, as the portal closed and the Forsaken that he knew were surrounding them started to advance. Alec counted half a dozen closing in as he shifted his bow over his shoulder and nocked an arrow.

Alec let an arrow fly at something skittering across the floor and then started advancing on the nearest Forsaken. He heard the crack of Izzy’s whip right before another Forsaken went sliding across the floor.

“Need a little help over here, big brother,” Izzy yelled. Alec let another arrow go, taking a moment to watch it bury itself in the eye of one of the Forsaken before Raphael leapt over it and broke its neck. “On my way,” Alec said, shooting another shax demon as he went. 

“Has anyone got eyes on Magnus?” Alec asked, helping Izzy finish off another of the Forsaken. 

There was a scream from somewhere behind them, definitely not Magnus, and a crash tinged in orange, before Izzy said, “I think he’s doing alright. We still have three of these guys and who knows how many demons to kill.”

“Right,” Alec said, focusing on the work, before his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He slid his bow back onto his shoulder, pulled out his seraph blade, and hit accept on the call. “Kind of a bad time right now,” Alec said, pushing another of the Forsaken back. 

“We’ve got approval from the Clave to move on Valentine,” Jace said, acting like Alec hadn’t said anything. “You and Izzy need to get back to the Institute.”

Alec laughed, then ducked, pulling Izzy down with him as another one of the Forsaken went flying over their heads in a blast of orange magic. “When we’re done fighting our way through the crowd of Forsaken and demons, and Magnus is done magically beating the crap out of another warlock, we might be able to portal back in time.”

“Hang on a second,” Jace said, and then Alec had to ignore the phone for a few minutes to kill another demon. Izzy was in the middle of killing two more, and Raphael seemed to have settled on leaping on the Forsaken's backs and breaking their necks to put them down. “Can you make sure Magnus takes that warlock alive?” Jace asked, voice coming back on the line. “Lydia thinks we can use him to breach Valentine’s compound.”

“Sure,” Alec said, sarcastically. “Let me call you back.” He was sure they could stop to talk strategy in the middle of this battle. “Magnus!” Alec yelled, in the general direction of the last burst of magic. 

There was a grunt, another burst of magic, and then, “I’m a little busy right now, Alexander!”

“We need you to take him alive!” Alec yelled again, ignoring the stupid little feeling in his stomach from hearing Magnus say his name. 

“We need to wrap this up,” Raphael growled, landing between Alec and Izzy. “The Forsaken are all dead, but the demons are getting more aggressive.”

“He’s right, Alec,” Izzy said, snapping her whip at another demon that got too close. “We need to go.”

Alec sighed, then yelled, “Magnus! We need to go, now!” 

Edge crashed into the floor at their feet, bound and gagged with magic. It was a few more seconds before Magnus walked back into their view and threw up a portal with a wave of his hands. “I don’t like being rushed,” Magnus said, glaring down at Edge. “And this one deserves me taking my time.”

“I’ll make it up to you later,” Alec said without a thought, hustling Izzy and Raphael through the portal and then waiting for Magnus to push Edge through before going in at his side. 

*

They stepped out of the portal back into the Hotel DuMort, where a trio of vampires were standing guard. Raphael nodded at them, and they left the room and set up once again at the doorway. He gestured toward the screen in the next room and said to Izzy, “Your clothes should still be where you left them.”

“Thanks,” she said, heading toward the screen. “I’m not about to head back to the Institute in this dress.”

Alec raised an eyebrow at her; it was as short and tight as most of the dresses she’d wear. “It’s ugly,” Izzy said with a shrug, and Alec snorted. 

Getting Magnus back had been driving all of Alec’s actions, all of his decisions, for days, and now that they had him back, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Edge as they waited for Izzy, trying to tamp down on his nerves and anxiety. 

“I’m going to owe you for this,” Magnus said, turning to Raphael. 

Raphael snorted. “After everything you’ve done for me? I’m not going to demand a favor.” 

“It could have been a trap.”

Raphael gestured at Edge. “He’s too stupid to think to set up a trap. If he had half a brain, he would have taken Ragnor instead of letting that demon kill him.”

“True,” Magnus said, turning to Edge. He was still magically bound and gagged. “You have to know there’s nowhere you could run that any warlock would help you after you killed one of our own.”

Magnus didn’t ungag him to hear what he mumbled as Izzy rejoined them in her own clothes, instead waving a hand to summon another portal. “I also have to thank you as well,” Magnus said, looking first at Izzy and then Alec. “Shadowhunters don’t generally risk their lives for Downworlders.”

Alec felt like his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. He knew Magnus was right, that even for an ally, this was more than they would normally do, but he couldn’t find the words to explain in front of Izzy and Raphael and whoever the three vampires guarding the doorway claimed to be. 

He didn’t know how long Magnus looked at him before Izzy snorted. She jerked a thumb at Alec and said, “This one got into a bar fight with two Circle members looking for information when we thought Valentine had you.”

“Really,” Magnus said, looking back at Alec. 

If Alec were a different person, he’d've squirmed under the attention, but he didn’t look away, didn’t flinch as Izzy continued talking. “Yeah, they’re terrified of him after the interrogations. And we found Valentine’s mole in the institute,” Izzy said, linking her arm with Magnus's. “We were all worried about you.”

“We should get back to the Institute,” Alec cut in, ready to be done with the attention. He was sure Izzy was going to say something about the wedding if he didn’t stop this now.

“We should,” Magnus said, waving them on toward the portal. “You’ll need to act on whatever this one wants to give up immediately before Valentine changes course.” And then he walked into the portal with Izzy, magically dragging Edge along behind him as Alec followed. 

*  
They stepped out of the portal into an Institute bustling with activity. There were three different teams of Shadowhunters gearing up for battle. 

Alec led Izzy and Magnus to a free interrogation room and nodded his approval as the Shadowhunters around them didn’t react to Edge floating along ahead of Magnus. 

Jace and Lydia met them as they were settling Edge into his temporary prison.

“I’m glad to see you’re unharmed,” Lydia said, nodding to Magnus. “We’d hate to lose an ally.”

Magnus smiled. “Thanks for the concern, but even he isn’t stupid enough to actually harm another warlock on purpose.”

Jace frowned and said, “Wasn’t he planning on selling you out to Valentine? And he sent that demon to kill your friend.”

“He was planning on double-crossing Valentine and running, which would have worked better if he used something more controllable than a shax demon.” Magnus paused with a look that seemed far away. “Valentine would have hunted him down over the betrayal, and there is no warlock alive who would help Edge hide, not after Ragnor.”

“Do you think he’s going to talk?”Alec asked. It was the first thing he’d said to Magnus directly since they'd gone through that first portal to the hotel DuMort. 

Magnus looked at him for a long moment and smirked. “He will once he understands his options."

“What options?” Jace asked, a thread of confusion leaking into the bond.

Magnus shrugged. “One of you can question him, and at the end he’ll be turned over to the Clave, or I can question him, at which point I’ll turn him over to whichever greater demon is bored today. His choice.”

“We can’t actually turn him over to you, the law is the law,” Lydia said, crossing her arms. Alec rolled his eyes. The law shouldn’t be involved with a Downworlder-on-Downworlder crime. 

“He doesn’t need to know that,” Magnus said. “He didn’t expect to see Shadowhunters involved in this kind of Downworlder business either; we can use that confusion.”

Lydia nodded. “It’s a sound strategy. How much pressure do we need to apply to get him talking now? We need to move on Valentine today.”

Magnus waved a hand, and they could hear Edge scream from behind the door. “Not much.”

Alec snorted and then tried to get his face back in order at the look from Jace. “Alright, I can handle it.”

“No need,” Magnus said. “This is one of mine, and it’s better if I handle it.”

“He’s right,” Lydia said, with a slight nod to Magnus. “Jace can go in with you. I need to speak with Alec for a moment.”

“Of course,” Magnus said, with a wave of his hand. The door opened, and he looked in the room at Edge, eyes flashing yellow. “This won’t take long.” And then the door closed behind them, Izzy headed off to go get changed, and Alec was left alone with Lydia. 

*

“What’s up?” Alec asked, leaning against the wall across from Lydia. 

“I wanted to talk to you about the wedding.”

Alec’s breath caught for a second. He’d forgotten for a little while that they’d still need to do that. “Right, we should probably talk about that.”

Lydia looked at him dead on, steady in that way she had about her, and asked, “Do you want to reschedule it?” 

“No,” Alec said without a thought, before realizing he'd actually said what he was thinking for once. “Listen -” he started, and then stopped as a muffled scream came from behind the door. “I really thought I’d be able to do this. We’d be great partners but I just. I can’t.”

Lydia smiled. It wasn't a happy smile, but it almost looked like she was trying not to laugh at herself. “I assumed. When you snuck out on an unauthorized mission to the hotel DuMort, I thought it was a good idea to cancel.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t plan on it becoming a mission,” Alec said. He was sorry he'd started this whole mess by proposing at all. 

Lydia raised an eyebrow. “I think we both know you were going to find a way to be there to get Magnus back.”

Alec ducked his head, because she was right. There was no order that would have stopped him. “I would have,” Alec said with a shrug. “I couldn’t leave someone I care about behind, and I can handle the consequences if the Clave wants to complain.”

“I didn’t tell them, since we had two new Circle members to transport to the City of Bones. They assumed you were transporting them, and I didn’t correct them,” Lydia said with a nod. 

“So how do you want to handle this?” Alec asked. He’d never had a relationship to end and didn’t really know how this worked. 

“We could just never reschedule,” Lydia said with a smile. 

Alec laughed. “Do you think that would work?”

“No,” Lydia said with a smile. “But I think we can postpone officially canceling the engagement until after we execute this raid on Valentine.” 

Alec nodded, “It’s a good strategy.”

“Good, I’m glad that’s settled,” Lydia said, pushing away from the wall as the interrogation room door opened. 

Magnus stepped out of the room and gave Alec and Lydia a look. Alec couldn’t read the look on his face, and he started to say something, before Jace came out into the hallway, excited. 

“We’ve got to move now,” Jace said. Alec could feel his hesitation through the bond. “According to that idiot,” Jace said, jerking a thumb behind him, “Valentine is paranoid, and he’s late checking in. We need to move before he moves his whole base again.”

“Has he moved it before?” Lydia asked, already moving toward Jace and the hall that led to the conference room. 

“Yes,” Magnus said, still with that weird look on his face. “He didn’t need to move so often last time, but if Edge is right, any delay or deviation means he moves base.”

Alec pushed away from the wall, ready to move out. “We should move out now. I’m sure Hodge not checking in anymore didn’t help.”

“Well, good luck,” Magnus said, waving a hand and opening up a portal in a place Alec was sure he should not be able to. “This has been fun, but I’m overdue to head home and have the largest drink I can find.” And then he stepped into the portal and was gone.

“Okay,” Jace said, looking from the spot where the portal had been to Alec and Lydia. “That was weird, right?”

“It’s fine,” Alec said, trying to ignore the feeling that he’d missed something. “Let’s go.”

*  
It was quiet when they approached Valentine’s barge, glamoured in the East River. There wasn’t much activity on the docks, and the surveillance teams hadn’t reported in for hours, so they didn’t have an up-to-the-minute idea of activity. 

Alec had a bad feeling as they breached the deck. It was too quiet; not so much so that he expected a trap, but there was something deeply wrong here. Alec looked to his left at Jace and felt the same sense of unease reflected back at him through the bond. There was something very wrong. 

It was maybe ten minutes before they found the first body: chained up with a seraph blade wound in the gut. No one on the strike team recognized whoever the unfortunate Downworlder was that'd had the bad luck to run into Valentine. 

“Split off your teams,” Jace said to the Shadowhunters following them. “Nobody goes alone; this could be a trap.”

Alec didn’t say anything at that statement, moving forward toward a railing that their surveillance indicated should be over another level of the ship. He looked over the side and grimaced. “Jace,” Alec called, not looking back to make sure Jace kept up with him. “I don’t think Valentine is still here.”

Jace came over, joining Alec at the railing, and looked down. Alec didn’t need to look again to know what he saw. Lying maybe 30 feet down were the bodies of one of the surveillance teams and what looked like several dead Forsaken. “At least they took some of them out with them,” Jace said, staring at their dead. 

“That’s something at least,” Alec said, pulling out the walkie-talkie they’d been pressed into bringing along on this mission. “I’d bet they came over to investigate when they noticed Valentine and his people had gone missing. This mission is a bust.”

Alec asked for a check-in over the walkie and got reports of more of the same. The ship was abandoned, with nothing but dead Downworlders left behind. The only good thing they’d found was the other surveillance team, gravely injured but not dead. 

“The Clave will probably want a team to search this ship from top to bottom,” Jace said, crossing his arms and leaning against the railing. “But I doubt Valentine would have left anything behind.”

“He had to know we were coming when Hodge stopped reporting in,” Alec said, thinking back to the ring they’d found during that interrogation. “And with Edge stalling on delivering Magnus, there’s no way he didn’t figure out we were coming.”

“I guess we have to keep chasing him,” Jace said, frustration flooding the bond. “We should head back to the Institute and debrief.”

Alec nodded and said, “Let’s go. The teams the Clave sent can handle the clean-up.”

*  
Alec and Jace debriefed with Lydia for what felt like hours before she dismissed them to go get cleaned up and get some sleep.

Alec stepped out into the hall, waved Jace off with an, “I’m going to go change and get some sleep,” and then headed in the opposite direction. It was the first time in days he’d had no immediate responsibilities, and he needed to talk to Magnus.

Alec cut across the command center, still teeming with people in the aftermath of the raid on Valentine’s ship. He’d made it almost to the door when it looked like Raj was crossing the command center to get to him - then Izzy stepped into Raj’s path and winked at Alec. 

He nodded at her and headed out. He made it to Magnus’s loft in a few minutes and had to push down nerves as he knocked, then let himself in when Magnus yelled, “it’s open.”

“Hey,” Alec said, walking into the living room.

Magnus looked up from where he was mixing a drink and said, “Alexander. Shouldn’t you be out chasing down Valentine?”

Alec shrugged. “It was a bust, he’d cleared out everything but the bodies.” 

“Too bad.”

“Yeah,” Alec said, wondering why Magnus was being so short with him. “I wanted to see if you’re feeling okay? We didn’t really get a chance to talk before you left.”

Magnus snorted as he turned and took a big gulp of his drink. “I’m fine, so you can finish whatever report you need to send to the Clave.” 

Alec flinched and said, “That’s not why I asked. I just. I was worried.” He was still worried; nothing about this conversation was going how he’d imagined.

“Well, as you can see,” Magnus said, waving a hand around his loft, “everything is fine.”

Alec snorted. “You don’t seem fine,” he said, confused at how things got so hostile. “So I’m still worried.”

“You should probably be worried about your wedding,” Magnus said, taking another drink. 

Alec made a face and then tried to rewind their conversation so far. And then he frowned. “The wedding is canceled,” Alec said, glaring at Magnus for a second. 

“What?” Magnus asked, setting his drink down. “You canceled your wedding?”

“Yes,” Alec said, crossing his arms. 

“Why?” Magnus asked, stepping closer to Alec. “The last time we talked you were pretty set on doing this.”

Alec snorted and rolled his eyes. Then he looked at Magnus and smiled. “The last time we talked, I hadn’t spent three days freaking out and trying to get you away from Valentine.”

“Is that so?” Magnus said with a smile. 

“It is,” Alec said, smiling again. “I just. I really, really like you.”

“Really,” Magnus said, smirking as he took another step closer. 

Alec laughed and said, “Yes really, shut up,” and then he pulled Magnus closer and kissed him before he could talk himself out of it. Alec hadn’t kissed many people, and he couldn’t remember it ever feeling like this. He didn’t know where to put his hands, if he should let go of Magnus’s vest and touch his arm or his waist or something, but then Magnus slid a hand into his hair and tugged, just a little, before his tongue slipped into Alec’s mouth. And then Alec didn’t really think about anything at all. 

Alec lost track of time for a while, until breathing became an issue and he had to pull away. He didn’t go far, resting his forehead against Magnus’s as he tried to catch his breath. 

“Hey,” Magnus said, thumb rubbing very distracting circles on Alec’s neck. “Are you okay?”

Alec almost nodded, then said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I was just thinking.”

Magnus laughed, a soft almost-sigh of a laugh that sent a puff of warm air across Alec’s lips. “If you’re thinking, I think my skills are slipping.”

“Fishing for compliments isn’t going to work on me,” Alec said, trying not to laugh. “I was thinking that maybe we should go on a date? We could maybe get a drink?”

Magnus slid his other arm around Alec’s neck, and somehow managed to step even closer, smiling. “We can definitely do that,” Magnus said, fingers playing with the hair at the base of Alec’s neck. “Did you want to go now?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“No,” Alec said, firm and a little distracted by Magnus’s hands in his hair, by the way he’d pressed so close.

Magnus laughed again and said, “I guess we’ll have to figure out something else to do tonight.”

“You got any ideas?” Alec asked, feeling bold enough to slide his hands around Magnus’s waist. 

“A couple,” Magnus said, and then he tugged on Alec’s hair and kissed him, and Alec wasn’t thinking about anything else for a long while. 

 

The end


End file.
